To escape both the library and the bad weather; I thought I would change things up by heading over to New Town to investigate the most recent showing at the Arusha Gallery. My day certainly perked up from there onwards.
In person, Elaine Speirs’ figurative oil paintings danced across the canvases. At first glance, they were aesthetically pleasing. This was perhaps a reaction which Speirs could have intended for viewers to initially have. The women spun round, dressed and congregated in their Victorian frocks. Pastel pinks and earthy blues doused each composition. On the surface, these works looked pretty and poised. They played into a ‘feminine’ stereotype, complete with connotations of flowers and ballerinas.
This ‘decorative’ appearance was then overwritten for me, when I read about the much darker context that these paintings originated from. Upon closer look, this ‘beauty’ is all but a pretence.
The Arusha Gallery detailed how Speirs was inspired by the symbolic role that the corset played in Victorian fashion. Not only was it restrictive upon women’s bodies, but upon their psychology too. Physically speaking, the corset amplifies the width of the chest and hips of a person’s physique by minimising their waist. For Victorian women, this hourglass outcome was then heavily glorified to suit the male gaze.
As soon as I read about the corset, that’s all I could see in each of the paintings. It’s as though the corset competed with the women for the spotlight.
In Pink Corset, a tall female figure shyly glances to the floor. Her elbow juts out so that her hand sits rather neatly along her voluminous bustle. Whilst she is embedded within a garden scene, with sprawling muddy brushstrokes; her dress is blocked out by strong angular contours. These rigid lines suggest a constriction around her middle, exactly where her corset would be. Despite the stereotypical ‘innocence’ associated with the colour pink, this dress is in fact quite menacing. It traps her. The model’s face says it all, with her downturned mouth. The wild foliage behind, emanating a sense of freedom and nature, makes us wonder just how artificial corsetry and the ‘ideal female physique’ is.
Disquiet Beauty is more wild and séance-like. Just as the title imposes, it is a liberation from Victorian beauty standards. Several figures waltz across the canvas. They are sketchy and transparent. What stands out is how their bare feet trample across a muddy floor. A pair of pink ballet pumps are discarded to the right of the composition. The figures appear younger, perhaps adolescent in their age. Their corsets are a lot looser than shown in the other paintings.
The ambiguous pink sun, which looms above this mystical scene, could suggest that this image is otherworldly, of the imagination. Perhaps throwing caution to the wind, running barefoot and untying one’s corset was exactly what some Victorian women daydreamed about. And, here it is projected many years later on the walls of the Arusha Gallery.
Elaine Speirs’ ‘Disquiet Beauty’ is showing at the Arusha Gallery until the 2nd April 2023.
Image Credits: All photography is by Photography by ZAC and ZAC, courtesy of Arusha Gallery’s Press Release Package.